Good Mourning: Love & Loss

The past few weeks have been rough.  I lost my grandmother a little over a week ago. Our time in Chicago for her funeral service is such a blur. I'm in a funk that I cannot explain.  I Googled how to cope with losing your grandparent.  I didn't read the articles that I found.  After I realized what I was doing I decided to get off of the Internet.  I sat quietly. No more tears. Nearly numb. Mourning.  For me, I found it good to mourn.

My Lola is the only grandparent that I ever knew.  The only grandparent that I got to love.  The last time that I saw her alive was at our wedding. August 2008.

This next statement may not make much sense.  I am trying to let some of these confusing thoughts and feelings out.  I was MORE sad the last time that I saw her alive than when I saw her at rest.  My final image of my Grandma is a peaceful one.  She looked as beautiful as I remember her to be. She truly looked as if she were sleeping...

When I last saw her alive, it broke my heart. She was restricted to a wheelchair.  She looked tired and sad.  She didn't recognize me.  She didn't know me.  She did not remember that she loved me.  Her memories had been fading well before our wedding day.  I lost my Lola years before she passed away.

Cool Ideas for Your Home Theater

So you have your home theater equipment and you're ready to set up your new room, but you want to make sure you make it, well, as cool as possible. It's already pretty special that you get to set up this room for your family. Why not add a few special touches that will make it excellent. Here are some ideas making your home theater really cool.

1. Go vintage

Use history's theaters as a model for yours. Think of those decadent 1920s theaters with the big gold double doors. Even if you don't get the doors, you can still model your room off of those elegant red carpets and red plush seats. Consider covering the walls with wood paneling and vintage sconces that give the room a rich feeling when they're on. If you want to really drive the idea home, get those chairs monogrammed. This Parisian opera house feel is great for classic movie buffs and people who love all things vintage.

2. Go man cave

If your theater is mostly going to serve as a man cave for sports game viewing, choose decor that imitates a sports bar feel. Choose wood molding and simple recessed lighting. Use neutral paint to emphasize the manly feel of the room. Use leather seating to increase the feeling of relaxing and enjoying the games. Granite bars going in front of the seating will be a great place to serve beer and snacks. Or, if that's too elaborate, you can get the seats that have a cup holder attached to them and use trays to serve food.

3. Go simple

If your home theater is more prominent in your house, you may not want a novelty room front and center. If you want to incorporate your home theater into the rest of you house's decor, match the paint and lighting to reflect that. Choose light walls. Since you may not be able to set up stadium style seating, you can just build one level above the ground level. This way, people can sit on the floor and on the couch above without feeling crammed.

4. Go modern

If you like clean lines and want to emphasize the techie feel of the home theater choose a concrete bar for the back of the room and concrete walls. Choose square chairs that emphasize strong lines and make the lighting just as angular. The result will be Star Trek meets Pottery Barn, and it will be beautiful.

5. Go kid friendly

If the home theater is mostly going to be for the kids, consider letting them weigh in. Of course, you might not be able to model the theater after a princess castle or spider man, but you can get some ideas that can be translated into a more civilized space. Consider hanging pictures of the kids' favorite cartoon characters or getting colorful sconces that make the space fun for kids but still tasteful enough for adults.

Once you've decided on your video equipment and you've started to set up the technology, you'll want to start considering the design of the room. It's great that you'll have a new fun room for the family, but it can be that much more fun if you make the room really cool -- whatever cool means to you and your family.

Grace Lord writes for home design blogs and recommends checking out www.theaterseatstore.com when looking to purchase theater seating.

Signs of Pregnancy

In the life of every woman at least once had a situation where she asked: "And I'm not pregnant?" The presence of certain signs suggest the probability of a possible addition of the family.

Some women have this hypersensitivity that almost from the moment of conception, are aware of pregnancy. But often times when the future mother learns of his "family way" when the baby starts to move.

So, the following signs of pregnancy:

Lack of regular menstruation. most common, although not completely reliable sign. Often fail menstrual cycle caused by hormonal changes or various diseases. After birth, the restoration of the cycle takes some time. Nursing mothers month absence, which may render them unkind service.

A positive pregnancy test. tests now sold in almost any pharmacy. Using them is easy. You can know the result on the day the alleged period. But ... Sometimes the tests give false results. This can happen if the test was expired, or used incorrectly. Influence the "picture" can some gynecological diseases or hormonal drugs. Because the test results in any case not absolute indicator of the presence or absence of pregnancy.

Tenderness and breast enlargement. Many women on the eve of pregnancy breasts become especially sensitive and increases in size. But if pregnancy occurs the pain is particularly strong, and can be released from the nipple cloudy liquid (colostrum).

Hypersensitive to smells. favorite perfume may suddenly disgusting, the smell of food being prepared can cause nausea and even vomiting, and ride public transportation can become a torture because of the increased "vonyuchesti" passengers.

Morning sickness. This symptom is quite different. Most often manifested toxemia from 7 weeks of pregnancy, but sometimes nausea can annoy and at earlier stages.

Changing eating habits. Increased appetite and absorption of food in incredible combinations, aversion to favorite foods, eating chalk and sand - also one of the possible signs of pregnancy.

Mood changes, irritability, tearfulness. Some women notice this sign of pregnancy as the first. Again, only this character can not be considered reliable. Women are prone to premenstrual syndrome, experience mood swings before each cycle.

Frequent urination. Many women suffer from it as one of the first signs of pregnancy. However, these symptoms may occur in diseases of the urinary tract or bladder compression of the tumor due to diseases of the internal organs.

Drowsiness, fatigue. early pregnancy often complain of fatigue inhuman, placed them on the bed almost half a day. Again, as an independent symptom she can not testify about the "family way."

Make clearly defining the question, "is pregnant or not pregnant" can only visit to the antenatal clinic. Elementary inspection gynecologist can give almost complete answer. Even at 7-day delay in the U.S. can see the presence of the ovum in the uterus. Visit a gynecologist for suspected pregnancy makes sense, if only because, unfortunately, terrible pathology - ectopic pregnancy - has the same symptoms as normal.

Halloween 2012 Our Pumpkin Patch Adventures

To get into the Halloween spirit we went on a visit to the pumpkin patch. We had a great time. We went early and on a weekday so, for the most part, we had it all to ourselves.  We are not big fans of crowds so it was perfect.

Our son had more fun running around and kicking at the straw than he did on the big inflatable slide!  It humors me how he was unimpressed. I thought he would love it!  He really wanted to go on one of the rides but wasn't tall enough to. Maybe next year!

Grandma joined us and WON our little guy a prize in a carnival type game! Who knew Grandma knew how to throw darts?! To my amazement she hit 4 out of 5 balloons!  I'm so glad hubby caught it all on video!  My siblings will get a kick out of watching mom make it look so easy!

Next up: Adventures in Trick-or-Treating! I'd love to hear your plans and/or traditions for Halloween. Check our out little man from Halloween 2011 as Baby Yoda. Hoping that you have a FUN and safe Halloween!

Family Fun At The San Diego Zoo With Tillamook

My family and I celebrated the Loaf Love Tour with the Tillamook crew today at the World Famous San Diego Zoo.  We met Loafy and got to know the Tillamook Ambassadors. Celebrity Chef Keegan Gerhard and his beautiful wife Lisa demonstrated some tips & tricks on making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. We sampled cheese, had some yogurt, built our own grilled cheese creations, and enjoyed ice cream for dessert! We spent the remainder of our day exploring the Zoo.  Our thanks goes to Tillamook for an awesome family day!

I wanted to share a few photos from our family day of fun!  Hoping that you all had (or are having) an AMAZING weekend! Please let us know what you and your family are up to!

Baby Loaf

Cheese Tasting!

Our Family & Loafy

Cheese!

Chef Keegan, My Silly Monkey & Me
 

Keegan & Lisa

Grilled Cheese Featuring Tillamook Cheese

Tillamook Mudslide Ice Cream

Yummy Yogurt!

Human Brain Analysis - Man vs. Woman

1. MULTI-TASKING
Women - Multiple process
Womens brains designed to concentrate multiple task at a time.
Women can Watch a TV and Talk over phone and cook.
Men - Single Process
Mens brains designed to concentrate only one work at a time. Men can not watch TV and talk over the phone at the same time. they stop the TV while Talking. They can either watch TV or talk over the phone or cook.

2. LANGUAGE
Women can easily learn many languages. But can not find solutions to problems. Men can not easily learn languages, they can easily solve problems. That's why in average a 3 years old girl has three times higher vocabulary than a 3 yeard old boy.

3. ANALYTICAL SKILLS
Mens brains has a lot of space for handling the analytical process. They can analyze and find the solution for a process and design a map of a building easily. But If a complex map is viewed by women, they can not understand it. Women can not understand the details of a map easily, For them it is just a dump of lines on a paper.

4. CAR DRIVING.
While driving a car, mans analytical spaces are used in his brain. He can drive a car fastly. If he sees an object at long distance, immediately his brain classifies the object (bus or van or car) direction and speed of the object and he drives accordingly. Where woman take a long time to recognize the object direction/ speed. Mans single process mind stops the audio in the car (if any), then concentrates only on driving.

5. LYING
When men lie to women face to face, they get caught easily. Womans super natural brain observes facial expression 70%, body language 20% and words coming from the mouth 10%. Mens brain does not have this. Women easily lie to men face to face.
So guys, do not lie face to face.

6. PROBLEMS SOLVING
If a man have a lot of problems, his brain clearly classifies the problems and puts them in individual rooms in the brain and then finds the solution one by one. You can see many guys looking at the sky for a long time. If a woman has a lot of problems, her brain can not classify the problems. she wants some one to hear that. After telling everything to a person she goes happily to bed. She does not worry about the problems being solved or not.

7. WHAT THEY WANT
Men want status, success, solutions, big process, etc... But Women want relationship, friends, family, etc...

8. UNHAPPINESS
If women are unhappy with their relations, they can not concentrate on their work. If men are unhappy with their work, they can not concentrate on the relations.

9. SPEECH
Women use indirect language in speech. But Men use direct language.

10. HANDLING EMOTION
Women talk a lot without thinking. Men act a lot without thinking.

Giving up Annie

Sunday I thought this post was going to be entitled, "Giving up on Annie." Instead we gave her up.

Monday we packed up the car and drove two hours to meet up with the couple who helped connect us with our dachshund, Annie. Tony handed Annie back to this loving couple. We were surrendering her to their care.

New Year's Day brought us nothing but heartache. We woke up late and as usual, Tony took the girls, Annie & Piper, outside to do their doggie business. But this time Annie could not scamper up the stairs. Tony carried her inside, put her down on the floor and it was evident that something was wrong.

We eventually realized that something was very wrong and took her to the animal ER room. Which, by the way, is one of the most depressing places I have ever been in. I felt like half of us were crying.

The vet took a few minutes to look over Annie and determined that yes, it looks like she had a ruptured disc.

Now, we knew going into all of this, when we adopted Annie, that doxies were prone to back problems, but we had fooled ourselves into thinking that if we exercised Annie enough, kept her weight down and carried her down the stairs, that she'd be ok until she was a little old lady doxie. But we were so wrong. Everyone always commented on how well Annie was physically. Perfect weight, sleek, the picture perfect doxie. It makes no sense what happened.

After hearing all the details of the surgery option, the cart option and the putting her to sleep option, we took her home with enough medication to keep her comfortable until we could figure out what to do.

A very long story short and without the gory details, we ended up contacting Lois, who is our contact with the doxie rescue we got Annie and Piper from. I also knew it was in our contract to notify her if we couldn't take care of either of them anymore. And well, we had come to the conclusion that we couldn't take care of Annie anymore.

This picture is of our girls together, one last time. Annie still has a lot of spunk left in her and returning her to the doxie rescue was the best decision for all of us. Lois cares for many doxies who are in need of extra care, special care and round the clock care. If anyone can help Annie heal, it would be Lois.

We are all heartbroken in la Casa de Roni. Piper too.

I was feeling (and honestly still am) totally guilty about us realizing that we just could not take care of Annie anymore when one of my besties, Amy, texted me and said, "Our dogs are a part of our family, but we have to make the best decision for our human family." And sadly that's what it came down to.

I know some people will think I am awful for letting Annie go, but I know we gave her the best chance for recovery. Sometimes loving is about letting go and we had to let her go.

If you want to do anything, send the DRNA some money because they do this sort of work all the time. Otherwise just send the kid some hugs and Annie strength to get through what could be months of recovery.

Christmas Traditions

Our Christmas Tree concern this year was making sure that it would be Toddler Friendly. We didn't want to worry about our son being injured by breakables or the mess of fallen pine needles (even though we normally love the look, smell, and holiday feel of a real tree).  My idea of using toys in the tree was a success! Our son loved it, we loved it, and we are thinking of adding it to our family holiday traditions.  Last year we introduced our son to his very own Nativity Set and brought it out again this year.  Even prior to the birth or our son last year, we attend the Children's Christmas Mass which is such a beautiful service.  The angelic voices of the Children's Choir moves me to tears.  As our son (and our family) grows, so does our photos/video collection, our traditions, and our cherished memories!

Christmas 2011Please share your family traditions - perhaps we can incorporate them into ours as well!  For us the Christmas Season is far from over - It's has just begun!

Christmas 2010: Our Son's 1st

Pre-Baby Christmas
No More Glass Ornaments for now

How To: Keep Your Family On-Board for Your Blogging Journey

Some tips from ProBlogger:

- Create Healthy Boundaries. For example, I have established a “no computer time” rule for myself where I don’t use the laptop (or my smart phone) between the time I get home from work and when we get the kids to bed. By setting up this boundary, I free my time and my mind to enjoy my children, play outside or help my wife out with dinner each evening.

- Communicate Your Reasons for Blogging. Why are you investing all this time and effort into blogging anyway? Take the time to tell your loved ones why your blog is important to you and how you see it as a benefit for your family.

- Sacrifice Personal Time, Not Family Time

- Seek Their Input

References:

7 Tips to Keep Your Family On-Board for Your Blogging Journey. ProBlogger.
Image source: public domain.

Excessive Internet use may be linked to depression

Excessive Internet use may be linked to depression. Spend a day offline and connect with friends and family.

Twitter comment by @MiriamETucker: But they're all online!

Your Internet use could be telling you something about your mental health. If you keep up with friends via Facebook or spend more time chatting online with strangers than with family, it might be time to disconnect the computer for awhile — and check in with yourself.

The researchers analyzed internet use and depression levels of 1,319 Britons aged between 16 and 51. An online questionnaire was used to measure participants' Internet use, the functions for which they used the Internet, and their depressive tendencies. Of these, 1.2 percent were "internet addicted."

"Excessive internet use is associated with depression, but what we don't know is which comes first -- are depressed people drawn to the internet or does the internet cause depression?"

Using the Web to replace your usual social circle could be a red flag. Instead of spending hours on message boards, pick up the phone and call someone.

Twitter comments:

@BiteTheDust (Robbo) re: internet and depression.... if you skype someone is that using the phone or using the internet? just asking :)

@amacdt Especially if you use video skype - it's a tough one. I find that I really enjoy talking to people with video

References:

The relationship between excessive Internet use and depression: a questionnaire-based study of 1,319 young people and adults. Morrison CM, Gore H. Psychopathology. 2010;43(2):121-6. Epub 2010 Jan 23.

Study links excessive Internet use to depression. Reuters.

http://www.360-5.com

Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Live blog: Work-Family Balance for Women & Men

I am live-blogging from the Council On Contemporary Families Annual Conference.

Book Review: One Big Happy Family edited by Rebecca Walker

What is family?

That's a question that I think about quite often. My family - father & sisters - live in another state. But when I was emailing last night about having a potluck dinner in a few weeks, I said "having dinner with family is down time!" And I mean it. More often than not, we are choosing and crafting our own families. We aren't restricting ourselves to those we share DNA with, but opening up to those we depend on daily to get thru this journey called life.

The 18 stories in One Big Happy Family prove that the definition of family is fluid.

Dawn Friedman (one of my most favorite bloggers) tells the tale of the open adoption of her daughter, Madison. Honestly it's a tale I read in real time on her blog, but one that still has me going thru half a box of tissue. Dawn's hopes and fears for the adoption are so palpable. While open adoption, especially as open as Madison's is, isn't for everyone, I do think that Dawn gives some greata advise for anyone considering adoption:

Adoption social workers say that every woman needs to say hello to her baby before she can know if she can say good-bye.

While our agency allowed "matches" as early as the seventh month, they stressed to us that a match was nothing more than a woman expressing her right to consider an adoption plan. It was not the promise of a baby, it was not a guarantee that we would be parents again.

Suzanne Kamata's story of creating family in another country with traditional family rules is one for everyone with an in-law story. It's witty, heart-wrenching and somehow you end up with a smile at the end. You'll also never look at your Wii the same again.

What would you do for your BFF? Would you marry him? That's what Liza Monroy does to keep her gay male BFF from having to return home to an ultraconservative country. This married chick relished that it's not just her "traditional" marriage that endures the debate over whose turn it is to do the dishes. Ah, love and marriage.

Paula Penn-Nabrit pens an essay that voices so many concerns that are rarely expressed. What do we do, as a society, with the families of color who are, well, doing well for themselves? What do we do with children of color who aren't dragging the school test scores down? With all our talk of being post-racial, embracing diversity, the fact is that many people are still drawn to teaching & service to "help the less fortunate."

Then there is Marc and Amy Vachon's contribution. Overall I loved it. Two people working to make egalitarian parenting work for them. What I didn't like is their premise that shared/egalitarian/5050 parenting is something that feminism failed to deliver.

I don't like that premise because it makes one view feminism as a religion and that Gloria Steinem will swoop down on her wings. Rather I view feminism as the resource that gave us, men and women, the language to negotiate who will wash the dishes and raise our sons in a way that does not allow them to forget to bath the children. I can honestly say that I've never had to leave a list for my husband before a trip. He just knows what to do - he's our daughter's father. He's not the babysitter. He might not always have faith in his abilities, but he's come to see how awesome he is, even if I don't tell him enough. But that's our family.

And that's the joy of One Big Happy Family. You get a peek into other families, you see how much we have in common and how we all get through it.

In some ways it is ironic that Rebecca Walker, who has had a very public falling out with her mother is the same person who pulled together what could be a defining and accessible volume on what contemporary families really look like. On the other hand, she also defines why some of us need to craft families of our own.

I received an email asking me to:

Buy this book to let legislators know America is challenging their assumptions about the definition of family. Buy it now and get it on the New York Times bestseller list, a message they will understand. Send them a copy with a personal note expressing your feeling that all American families have the right to be happy. Don’t let our leaders do to our families what they’ve done to the economy. If we let them define our families like they define health care, American families won’t stand a chance.

I think that's a pretty darn good idea. And you can buy One Big Happy Family : 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Househusbandry, Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love Edited by Rebecca Walker from an independent bookstore or Powells. They deliver!

Our first week of kindergarten

A welcome note to any of my daughter's classmates parents who have found this blog. First, rest assure that I won't be blogging gossip here or anything I think is inappropriate for a blog so darn public. If you're the teacher, I will always bring my concerns to you before I ever write about it here. That said, back to our regularly scheduled blog...

Ah, Friday of the first week of kindergarten. I think we are all exhausted from this week. My daughter especially so. So how is she doing? She took to kindergarten like a fish to water...at least from my perspective.

Tuesday was insane. Almost every kindergartener had at least two adults with them in the lunchroom. I think we caught a few kids who also brought grandparents...very cute. Our daughter sat at the table looking a bit stunned, yet eager. We all walked over to her classroom once the teacher showed up at 9. The room was a nice size, cubbies for their coats, and the big tables were all set with their first coloring project. Once we got all her items put away and the girl was settled in a seat, she gave us that look. "OK, you can go now." We hugged her and went in for the good-bye kiss. DENIED. Overnight, our loving & kissy girl grew into a 16yo teen. Pick up was equally insane as class after class of different grades flooded into the lunchroom and kids had to sort themselves out between pick-up and bus. One teacher did have a bullhorn, but we could barely hear it over the chatter of tweens. Our babysitter came to get acquainted, thank goodness we planned it like that cause it really was a madhouse for a few minutes. But the kid found us and looked happy. She took a nap on the way home.

The rest of the week we left her in the lunchroom a few minutes before the teachers show up with a few of her classmates and the teacher's assistant. Each morning she acted as if we were the most embarrassing people in the entire world...And I wasn't even singing! That is an issue we will be working on, let me tell you!

The funniest thing is that on Wednesday she saw the kids who were going to eat breakfast line up and go in line. She got a breakfast ticket and ate breakfast...her second of the day. All without paying for it. She just followed the group. Her daddy did talk to someone the next day to pay for breakfast.

She also reported to us one day that one boy told her that he didn't like girls. Today I saw him calling for her at pick-up and patting the spot next to him on the bench. There's more to that story, but it's best told in person over a cuppa something. :)

Her teacher looks like she's going to be great. The kid loves her already.

I'm pretty hopeful for this year and this school. It was quite a leap of faith to apply to this school. I haven't written about kindergarten in months because I was waiting for us to figure out where she would go and then I didn't want to jinx what did happen. We didn't get into the lone private we applied to, but we did get into one magnet school and one gifted school. We're at a gifted. We are clearly aware of how lucky we are. Seriously. We decided to apply to this school solely based on the principal who appears to not take any BS. She stated some very high standards at orientation and while the coursework is intense for kindergarten, I think everything will work out.

Book Review: Eco-Friendly Families & Author Conversation

It's back-to-school time and I personally believe this is the real new year. This is the time for resolutions - yes, I'm that much of an academic nrrd. My life revolves around academic years. So what better resolution than to be more green?

Eco-Friendly Families, a new book by Helen Coronato, gives you the outline for your whole family to lead a more green life. Now let me tell you, we are not the picture of a green family. Forgive me Goddess, for we have sinned! We live in Chicago which has a horrible recycling program and we're too lazy to haul our recyclables to a community center. We have a 5yo girl who could draw and write 24/7 if we let her, so we go thru more than our fair share of paper. I also indulge in frozen dinners for lunch at work.
Did I feel overwhelmed by this book? Yes. Did Coronato address that? YES! Basically she reminds you to go slow. Pick things that you can do or can get your family to do.

My favorite part of the book is near the beginning in chapter 3. She gives us month to month goals and only 4 of them called "The Eco-Friendly Four." The first tip for August is this:

Once school starts, so do computer projects. this year, put a dual-can practice into place wherever you have a printer. Mark one can "garbage" and one can "paper only." If your waste baskets don't have lids, reuse a piece of cardboard from an old box and attach a homemade lid that has to be lifted. this way, no one is absentmindedly dropping paper into the garbage can or vice versa. Before computer paper ever his the recycling container, make sure you have used both sides. Set up a paper tray for collecting sheets that can be used again. When it's time to purchase a new ream, look for recycled paper products.

The book has a lot of achievable goals. Don't work the book front to back as if you have to do this before that. Jump to areas you think you can really accomplish. For us it might be about cleaning solutions and paper use. We do have a new paper collection box just a few blocks from us. I also want to start remembering to bringing old shopping bags to the mall. I keep most of the bags I get from Ann Taylor Loft...they are great reusable bags. My problem is remembering to reuse them at their store!

~~~~~

I was able to talk with author, Helen Coronato, over the phone this week about her book for a few minutes.

Why did you write this book? I wrote the book that I was looking for and I couldn't find. I am a mom with two young children (ages 3 and 1). I wanted a book that was user friendly, optimistic, and hands-on. I wrote it to be an activity book for the entire family NOT as something that would be one more thing for mom to do. I didn't grow up with being green in mind. I had to change some old habits and I wanted to raise my kids knowing how to be green, so that it was second nature for them. Hopefully if we do that with our kids, they will take being green to the next level.

How do we go from feeling hopeless about the situation to hopeful without being overwhelmed by all that we need to do? In chapter three I break it down with a year-round calendar. Each month I give you four ideas - If you do just one new idea a month, you'll be doing a lot for the environment and our world. There's a lot to do, but most of us need to start with small steps. Little ideas do make a difference. And be realistic. You aren't going to go 100% green overnight. I wrote the book and my family doesn't do everything in it! I don't expect others to do it all. We also have to stop comparing ourselves to others...We have to be as green as we can be.

What was the hardest habit for your family to get into? The easiest? There are two things that are a struggle for us. The first is my husband has a hard time recycling paper. I have to police the paper use in our house. The second is that I am overly optimistic about how much healthy cooking I will do each week. I over buy produce. Thankfully my husband is great at making veggie soup on Sundays and using up the produce. The boys get into it and it's a fun thing for them to do together. My husband & I help each other with our challenges.

The easiest? Bringing our bags to the store. We put our oldest son in charge of the bags. We also store them in the car in front of his car seat, so each time we stop somewhere he asks us, "Mommy, do we need a bag?" When we walk from the car to the store, he holds one handle, I hold the other and so we know when we forget the bags. Do you bring bags to all stores or just the grocery store? Oh, everywhere!

Thanks Helen! Thank you, Veronica.

Purchase this book at an indie bookstore, Powell's, or Amazon!

Disclaimer: The only payment I received for this review was the review copy of the book. 

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday. I won't tell ya how old he is, but I can say he's not 60 yet. Yup, I have a young dad. While we don't always see eye to eye, he has been obviously pivotal in shaping who I am today. In many ways, if he hadn't stuck around to be my dad, I'd be a totally different person. He's the one who instilled my love of sports which was my gateway drug to feminism. "What do you mean I can't play ball? I throw better than you!"

We don't really know how to talk to each other, my mom was our interpreter, we do know we love each other and we know how to talk Cubs. GO CUBS!

What makes a family? Or a marriage?

Here are a few good posts that discuss both questions:

• Womenstake takes on how the Census ignores same-sex marriages
• Nancy Polikoff cusses how Ohio leaves out same-sex couples from the otherwise progressive move towards paid sick leave.